John looked at the mirror with unusual attention. He fixed his hair over and over again, he must have been there for at least ten minutes. He turned away for a second and, before he could put on his Blackhawks sweater, he looked at the mirror. "I look like a greasy bohunk," he said realizing his hair had been distastefully slicked back. He never really thought about his appearance. He decided he wasn't going to start now.
John left his room, he had been planning this next move for a while. "Hey pop, you working the game tonight?" He yelled to his father. "What? Why, you have the tickets right?" His dad said unceremoniously from somewhere near the kitchen. "Yeah, I just wanted to know if you were using the car tonight," John said, hoping he would get the answer he wanted, he needed. His father didn't answer right away, meaning he either had not heard John, or was busy. John walked over to his father who was in the kitchen looking at the sink. "Me and your mother are thinking of going to the tavern tonight," John's father said gruffly. "Once I fix this sink, and your mother gets home from that joke she calls a job I'll head over there." "Well, I'm gonna take this girl to the game, and do you think if I dropped you and mom off, and paid for a cab, you'd let me take the car?" John said hopefully, his father was a bastard, but not totally unreasonable, this also meant he could drink more. His father laughed, "Johnnie wants something, haha you only come around me when there's somethin' in it for you huh." John expected this type of guff, his father was a bastard.
"What time's the game? We're playin' the Blues right?" his father asked. "Yeah, it's a 7 o'clock game too, so if I wanted to go, I'd have to leave in like an hour or so," John said. "Drop us off before you go, and pick us up after the game and I'll let you take the car." And with that the deal was done, they separated. John steered clear of his father in order to avoid any situations that would lead to potential arguments, he even helped him with the sink momentarily.
His mother got home, his parents bickered a little bit, and they set off for the bar the Bender family made their haunt, even John was allowed to drink there so long as he didn't bring any underage friends. The tavern was an old working class bar where all of the men met after work, or during the day if they didn't have jobs. He dropped them off and set out for Claire's house. His clanky ford truck sputtered through the streets. The further he got from his neighborhood and closer he got to the Standish's house the nicer the houses got, the houses were getting really nice, really fast.
He was getting really nervous, but he tried not to think about it. He had his tickets, he was dressed as usual, he looked good, in his opinion at least. He pulled into the street he was supposed to and his jaw immediately dropped. These houses were huge. "Claire lives in fucking Buckingham Palace," John said to himself pulling into her driveway. He pulled up halfway, turned off the car and was almost out of the car when he saw her. She probably had been at the door so he would not have to come in and meet her parents, she was embarrassed. John knew she had every reason, no matter. She walked out with a nice leather coat, a skirt, and a Blackhawks jersey on. "Since when do you own a hockey jersey?" He asked her as she approached him. "Since 4 o'clock."
Allison finished her dinner and made her way up to her room without saying anything. Dinner had been a little better than normal, she talked with her parents a little bit, but not too much. She sat looked around at her room. It was very dark, and very gloomy, and very messy. She thought about changing things around a little bit, make things brighter. She looked at her bed, she hadn't made her bed since long before high school. She sat down to start a bit of homework when she heard her mom call for her. She went down the stairs, not bothering to yell back, her mother wasn't worth the effort. She walked down and saw two pairs of feet, one with a pair of old slippers and slacks, and another with jeans and sneakers, no one wore sneakers in her family.
"Allison, there's a boy here for you, I'm sorry what was your name again?" Her mother said to her visitor. "Andrew, Mrs. Reynolds, Andrew Clark," Andy said. 'Bond, James Bond' Allison thought to herself with a smirk. "Allison, I didn't know you were expecting company," Mrs. Reynolds said cheerfully as she walked in to the other room. Her parents were not used to her having people over, so they probably didn't mind.
"I decided to come pay you a visit," Andy said shyly. "A nice surprise," she said reassuringly. They stood there uncomfortably for a few moments until Allison finally decided that it was okay to be welcoming to her first visitor in a while. "Well, you can come in, do you want something to drink?" She said as welcomingly as she could, she was not used to this. "I'm fine, thanks. I actually can't stay long I was just topping in to say 'hi,'" he said to her distaste. "What do you have going on?" She asked. Andy smiled for a little bit, he laughed and admittedly said "Actually I don't have anything going on, I just didn't want to intrude." They both laughed at this, and after a few moments, an awkward silence poked its nasty head once again.
Allison knew her parents weren't really going to mind, her father wasn't even home anymore, so she decided to gesture up the stairs. "Really, you sure that's okay?" Andy said reprehensibly. "Yeah, come on, don't worry sport, you're not getting any tonight," Allison said walking up the stairs. Andy followed quietly as she led him up the stairs and through the hallway to her room. Her house was small, older, and not well lit, the mood reflected this.
They finally got to her room, she stood in front of him looking embarrassed. "It's nice," he said simply, he was clearly not impressed, but was a nice guy. "You're lying, and you're bad at it," she said laughing. "I've been meaning to clean it for a long time, but I've never gotten around to it," Allison explained. "When did you get Atari?' Andy asked. "I didn't know you were into video games," he added surprised. "I uh, liberated it," she said laughing. She sat down and kicked at the plastic thing lightly. "That's funny, they're really fun, my cousins from Wilmette have one," Andy added gesturing to see if it was okay to sit next to her on the bed.
Allison didn't like the Atari, she didn't want to seem to easy, but she thought this would be a nice gesture. "Do you want it, I don't play, I've never even used it," she said quickly. "I could never," he said before getting cut off by her kiss. Allison didn't want to kiss him, but she did. She decided to turn this to her advantage, so she broke away, sex was her weapon, after all. 'If you don't take it, you won't get any of that anymore," she said with a dastardly laugh. They laughed, he ended up accepting the Atari, among other things, before he left to go home. She smiled at the empty sport on her floor where the Atari had been before the unexpected visit.
Claire and John entered Shermer in John's repulsive care at around 10:30 that night. She tried not to mind that the car was repulsive, but she was so accustomed to cars that were relatively new, or at least clean. She had a great time at the game, the seats were surprisingly good, and the hockey team she was rooting for won, the only reason she knew who to cheer for was because she had bought that hockey jersey. John seemed to be so into the game, and she hardly knew what was going on. She really liked watching it, but not just for John's sake. It was fast, exciting, she liked it when the goalies in their big pads made saves.
"Thank you for taking me," she broke the silence with a smile. "No problemo sweet thang," he said jokingly. "Hey do you mind if I pick my parents up real quick? That was part of the deal in how I got the car for the night," John said nervously. Claire could tell he had been dreading this. Claire was frightened by the thought of Mr. Bender, she knew what he wasn't exactly a cup of tea on Sunday. "Yeah, of course, I'll get to meet your parents this way," she said trying to sound happy. "On second thought, I'll just check in at the tavern and tell them I'll be a little bit longer," he said quickly. She knew he was embarrassed about his parents, but she wanted to meet them. "No, that's fine, I don't want to impose any more time on you," she said trying to be as considerate as possible.
"It's right here, so I'll be back in a second," John said as he pulled in to the gravel parking lot of this crummy miserable looking bar. He pulled up close to the bar's entrance and she could hear the loud, rowdy crowd inside, this is not what the Standishes did, ever. "Hold on, one sec," he said as he hopped out of the car without turning it off. She could see him running up to the door as if he were doing an errand, he was met at the door by a burly man in a black t shirt, jeans, a grizzly beard on him. The way they were talking was rather friendly, as if they had known each other for a while. Claire was surprised by this, although she didn't know what he really got at in his time outside of school and detention, she knew he wasn't of legal drinking age. They parted with a high-five, and John headed back to the car, she heard him say something like 'I'll see you tomorrow' when he opened the car door and got back in.
"What happened to your parents?" Claire asked as he closed the door and put the car in drive. "Old man got the boot over an hour ago, he and my mom got a ride though," he said indifferently. Claire didn't know what to say to this, she definitely didn't want to laugh, but she didn't want to sound concerned and risk looking stupid. "You have to be home soon?" John asked abruptly. "Not really, I have no idea where my parents are, my dads probably downtown 'working' and my moms asleep by now," Claire explained, she really didn't know where her parents were, but she wanted the date to continue.
"Well, do you want me to take you home?" John asked. "No, not really, unless you have to be home," Claire said with a smile. John frowned, but it was not the type of frown that meant he was mad at her. "Claire, do you know why my old man was kicked out of the bar?" He said looking at her. They had pulled over without Claire noticing. "I'm sorry, I'm not used to this," Claire said sympathetically. "I could just drop you off, I know you don't need this," John said frustratingly. "No, let's park somewhere, I don't want to go home," Claire said without realizing what John thought she meant. John smiled mischievously. "Not like that!" Claire said slapping him on the arm.
Claire was finally dropped off quarter after midnight. It had been a fun date, they talked, kissed, and threw rocks at this lake by her house. She also had him remove all the other girls he 'considered' from his wallet, he didn't seem to mind. She snuck in to her room and immediately passed out from exhaustion. It has been a good date.
Andy got home from his nighttime jog with his brother at around eleven. "Hey, you work hard enough and you're gonna take state for sure," his older brother Rob said supportively. Rob, like Andy, had been a product of his father's obsession with competition and athletics. Unlike Andy, Rob had not been as successful in winning state. Rob was a great wrestler, but never realized his full potential, he was sitting as a reserve for Purdue University's wrestling team on an academic scholarship. Rob seemed to have everything figured out, he had just come home from college to take 'personal week.'
"Yeah, who knows, hopefully I'll do well in the next few weeks," Andy said indifferently. "Hey you're gonna have to concentrate though, and stay out of trouble," Rob said slightly less sociably. "Dad put you up to saying this?" Andy asked with a frown. "Nah, I just don't want to see anything happen to you, you're too good. Plus, I hear you're getting recruited by Iowa, you know they demolished us last week?" Rob said. Purdue was matched up against many of the schools Andy was looking at.
This didn't make any sense to Andy why Rob was in town if he was in the middle of wrestling season. "So why are you in town again, a personal week?' Andy asked. "Yeah, it's spring break for Purdue, and I wanted to be home for a few days," Rob said, walking into the kitchen. Andy didn't really know what to say, he knew he would never get spring break off in college, it was smack dab in the middle of the season, and it was a Tuesday. Andy walked in behind him, about to ask what his coach said when his brother changed the subject.
"So where were you today when I came home?" Rob asked, opening the fridge. "Never underestimate the glory of food from home," he added before Andy could answer. "I was at a friends," he added. "This friend give you an Atari?" he added with a smirk. "Yeah, I know, isn't it sweet. "Andrew you didn't steal this did you?" his brother added with a grown up voice. They both laughed. Allison had stolen it, Andy didn't know from whom, and didn't want to. 'Nah, I've been in too much trouble lately to pull shit like that," Andy said as if the question was serious. "You wanna play?" The two brothers looked at each other and without saying a word, they ran down to the basement and the competition ensued. It was intense, even heated. It was like they were ten and twelve years old again, they even resorted to smacking the game controllers out of each other's hands in order to give them the advantage.
"So, who was this friend you visited, and who do I need to personally thank for such a beautiful machine?" Rob asked still looking at the screen. "Some girl from the east side of town, kinda by the mall, she's cool," Andy said still concentrating on the screen. "Anyone I know?" He asked, Andy knew he would ask this. "Na you wouldn't know her," Andy answered. "Nice girl, giving you a video game and whatnot, she rich or something?" Rob asked. Andy thought about saying yes, he didn't care that Allison's home wasn't big or anything like Claire's, so he said "No, just really nice I guess." "Sounds like a keeper," Rob replied before beating Andy in the second round. "Ugh, I'll get you back, but later, I got homework," Andy said getting up. "But yeah, she's a keeper."
Brian finished his homework at around 9:30, relatively early, again. He had been working really hard on the classes he knew he could get A's in to combat his abysmal shop grade. He and his father decided to try to figure out this whole using their hands thing for the class. His mom was not happy that he showed up with mustard on his shirt.
He needed to find more activities to do after his homework. He was grounded and he had very few friends around him, so it was getting pretty dull around the house. After realizing, again, he had nothing to do in his own room he decided to walk downstairs. He went to his spot on the couch and turned on the television. He was watching some current events news stories with disinterest when Mr. Johnson strode in an sat down by him. "Hey son, you have your homework done?" His father asked quietly. "Yeah, just finished dad." Brian answered with a sigh. "Brian, your mothers been very worried about you," his father asked leaning in. "I told her I'd get my Shop grade up, dad," Brian didn't need this right now.
"I know its just high school, and whatnot, but we just want you to buckle down. You know, for your future." His father said, trying to sound empathetic. "I know, dad, its just kind of getting old," "I feel like your determination is faltering, son. But don't let it get to you," "Dad, my education is important to me, I won't slip up." Brian insisted and his dad seemed quiet for a little bit, watching the television. "Son, your mother and I want you to do well in school, but we want you to enjoy yourself as well. You've seemed really distant lately, is everything okay?" His father said leaning in. "Yeah, dad, everything's fine." Brian said, he didn't want to talk about this. "Brian, your mothers worried about you using drugs," his father said leaning in even further.
Brian's stomach fell, he had smoked weed with Bender, Andy and Claire just days before, and only once. He never knew something like that would come back to haunt him. "Dad, I've never tried drugs, and never will, okay," Brian said. "We believe you son, well, I never doubted you for a second," his father said defensively. "Well, your mother wanted this, I don't think it's necessary, but, well, your mother wants you to take a drug test." Those words sank deep, Brian was screwed and he knew it.
------------------------